She complied, keeping her hands visible.
And then he threw a gun to her feet. Her gun. So he’d taken it. “Pick it up.”
It seemed counterintuitive that he would give her something she could defend herself with. What kind of sick game was he playing?
She picked it up but kept it at her side pointed to the ground.
“Do you know what my plan is?” he asked with a maniacal lilt to his voice.
Sweat tricked down the side of her face. “I don’t.”
“I’m going to go to the hospital where Jason died and kill as many people as I can. You’ll be among them.”
Julia ran the tip of her tongue over her dry lips while she contemplated her options. Breathing slowly, she tried to stem the riptide of adrenaline that threatened to fuzz her thinking. Should she scream for help? Who would hear her? Take the gun and try to get a shot off before Ben shot her? She was anything but a sure shot. In the gun, she only kept one bullet. Her plan was always to fire a warning shot to scare off an intruder, but if the intruder got the weapon away from her...there wouldn’t be any more bullets to use against her. Julia hadn’t practiced with the weapon as often as she should have for a situation like this. In her heart, she knew she would never be capable of intentionally taking someone’s life.
Now she reweighed that credo.
“Or?” Julia asked.
“You think there’s another option?”
“Why else would you bring me here?”
Ben smiled. “Julia Galloway. No matter what I think of you...” He laughed to himself. “I really like you. You’re smart. Funny. I can see why Eli’s been pining for you.”
Had she heard him right? Sadly, it wasn’t appropriate to pump your captor for information about whether or not somebody had an attraction. Particularly when it was clear he wouldn’t be satisfied until she was permanently encased in a crypt. What it did tell her was that Eli had feelings for her and wouldn’t give up looking for her. She had to stay alive long enough for that to happen. That was her job.
“I like you, too,” Julia offered. How would this play out?
He folded his arms over his chest but kept the gun aimed her way. “That actually sounded sincere.”
“It was. I know the pain of losing loved ones. I’ve had pain in my life like that, too.” Because if you hadn’t nearly killed me, my parents wouldn’t have died in that car accident. “I know you loved Jason with everything in you for you to go to these lengths and do these things. You can begin to heal from that pain right now by not hurting anyone else. You can stop this path you’re on. If you kill me, you’ll never have a moment of peace again.”
Ben opened his arms wide. “Who says I want peace? Do you know what it’s like to live in this deep, dark pit that you can’t climb out of? Even though Jason wasn’t my biological child, that boy meant everything to me. My only chance at fatherhood.”
“You don’t have an out? You plan on dying at the hospital, as well?”
“That, Julia, is true. I have contingencies for a lot of things except the scenario I’m going to present to you. That’s how you ensure my death—deny the choice that I’m about to give you.”
“Which is?”
He aimed his gun back at her chest. “Take that gun and kill yourself. If you do, you have my sincere promise that I won’t drag you back to that place you call a center of healing, bring you to the PICU, to the room where Jason died, and kill as many people as I can until they kill me.”
Her hand sweated so badly that the gun almost slipped from her fingers. His proposal sent an arrow of fear straight through her heart. Was she willing to do as he asked to save others? In truth, she couldn’t trust him to do as he said—which was annihilating every person who took care of his child.
Innocent people.
“Mark Heller is innocent, isn’t he?”
“I guess it depends on how you qualify that word.”
“Meaning he didn’t kill anybody.”
“That is true—he didn’t kill anybody in the physical sense, but his actions did end his marriage. I guess you could call that a death of sorts.”
“How did you do it—set him up for the murders?”
In Julia’s mind, there were several reasons why Ben brought her here—the one he presented probably being the last on his list. There was something about confession that was freeing. Although Ben might not consciously realize it, he wanted to get what he’d done off his chest—all his misdeeds. And what better way to do that than with someone who wouldn’t be around to spill the secrets?
“Sometimes perfect things happen through serendipity.” He shifted his stance. “I got to know a phlebotomist named Karen who came to Jason’s bedside on occasion to do specialized blood tests. Some people can’t help oversharing. It’s a defect, I would say—particularly when you’re in a professional capacity.
“I found out many things from Karen. How she was married to the great Dr. Heller...and that the man everyone fell to their knees for was hardly one to be idolized. He cheated on her and she actually pointed to one of the nurses who was caring for Jason as the woman he strayed with.”
“What does this have to do with you framing Dr. Heller for these murders?”
“Karen and I bumped into each other at a coffee shop shortly after Jason’s death. She offered the usual condolences, but then the conversation turned in an unexpected way. I couldn’t stop thinking about those people who didn’t express their concerns about the ventilator and its potential to take a life instead of sustain it and how I wanted them to pay.”
“And Karen’s problem?”
“Simple...if it ever is—hatred for her husband and his womanizing ways. One thing led to another and she offered to give me a pint of his blood if I would do just one thing—make it look like he killed his mistress. Then she could have access to all his money while he wasted away in prison.”
A clammy sweat bubbled on Julia’s skin. It amazed her how easy it was for some people to tap into evil.
“This nurse cared for Jason. I realized we could both have what we wanted, and Dr. Heller could die with a needle in his arm. It was...perfection. And there would be enough of his DNA to spread the wealth around as they say.”
“But the police linked the cases too quickly.”
“Sadly, yes. This I have to take responsibility for. I was too anxious to do as the wife asked and killed the mistress first when I should have saved her for last. Heller’s DNA was found all over her apartment, which caused them to type it against the blood on the rope, and since my crime scenes were unique, they naturally thought to compare all the DNA. It was a good thing for me that the DNA testing got delayed because another crime took precedence over mine, which allowed me to kill most of the people on my list.”
“Why did you start killing again?”
“The ventilator that killed my son was going to be used on other children and I couldn’t let that happen. I figured Evelyn Roush deserved the Hangman’s death and I could try to make it look like a suicide to keep the police off my trail. A hit man was the best choice for you to make it appear like the same person wasn’t back to finish you off and Heller could continue to rot in jail. Who knew my relatives would be so incompetent and morally minded—even with a criminal history? I had to take matters into my own hands when Harper delivered the hit file to Ryder’s parole officer. The explosion was the only thing Ryder accomplished but ended up not achieving the end goal. I thought for sure blowing up that house would take you out but spare my own life and the damage would destroy any evidence contained in your book of confession—that pesky journal you found.”
“All people have a capacity for change. It’s still possible for you, too.”
“I don’t have any desire to change this course. Now, Julia, it’s time for you to choose. What will it be? Y
our death at your own hand to save many? Or your death at my hand and many more die?”
“I’ll only do it if you clear Mark Heller’s name.”
Did the lie sound as convincing as she wanted it to?
The smirk on Ben’s face solidified in Julia’s heart the action she had to take. “No deal.”
She brought her weapon up and aimed straight for his chest and fired.
* * *
Eli grabbed Ryder by the shirt and pummeled him into the wall. Every muscle fiber in his body burned to do whatever damage was necessary to pull the information needed from Ryder to save Julia’s life.
“Tell me where your brother-in-law is going with Julia,” Eli seethed, remnants of his words spraying Ryder in the face.
It was the first time in his career that he’d used physical force to try and scare an individual, and it sent an unknown dismay through his body. Not that he thought himself beyond physical force—no, it proved to Eli how desperate he was to save Julia. And desperation like that only stemmed from fear of losing some that you...
Loved.
Seeing Julia disappear with Ben sent his mind reeling. Imagining that they would never be together wasn’t acceptable. It was so much more than saving a witness—it was saving the one he was meant to be with forever.
He shoved hard again. “Tell me!”
Will and Jace pulled them apart and tossed Ryder into a chair.
Eli shoved a finger centimeters from Ryder’s face. “You don’t get it. If she dies, so much more is going to happen to you. You’re going to be brought up on charges for arson—perhaps even using a weapon of mass destruction, considering that you built a pipe bomb. Next is assault and battery for injuring the mother and son in the explosion. Conspiracy to commit murder. With all these things, you’ll never get out of jail, but if you want to avoid the death penalty you better help me save Julia before Ben kills her.”
“Who would believe the federal agent who put an innocent man away?”
Eli brought his fist high and before he could smash it into Ryder’s face, he forced it into the wall. The desire to throw chairs, break Ryder’s face...pull his gun and discharge it into the man’s chest became more than his inhibition and he stormed from the room and escorted Miles inside.
Ryder looked away, but his chest heaved with sudden emotion.
Eli bent down and tried to present the most calm, serene face he could muster. “Miles, did you do what I asked?”
The blond-haired boy nodded and held out the picture.
“Take it to your dad. I know he misses you.”
The wisdom of this maneuver was yet to be determined. It was risky. It wasn’t clear what kind of relationship Miles and Ryder had. Eli could only guess Ryder loved his son with everything in him to go along with Ben’s revenge plot over the loss of his nephew.
Eli stood and placed a steady hand on Miles’s back and eased him forward. At first, Ryder did everything he could to not look at his son, but after a few tentative steps Miles raced to his father and wrapped his arms around his chest.
“Daddy, please...do whatever it takes to come home. I miss you.”
Ryder bent his head, tears streaming down his face, and he pressed his lips into Miles’s mussed-up hair.
Eli tried not to count the minutes. He tried to convince himself his silence would bring a confession from Ryder’s lips. It might be the lowest play Eli had ever manipulated, but it was also a chance for Ryder to understand he didn’t have to throw his life away for the sake of Ben’s revenge.
“I will, Miles. I promise.”
Miles set his picture on the scratched table, two crayoned stick figures holding hands by a swing set—Miles and his father and what he hoped them to be. Jace then escorted Miles from the room.
Ryder wiped his nose with the back of his handcuffed hands and looked at Eli. “He’s taking her to the hospital. He wants to kill her there.”
EIGHTEEN
Julia’s bullet hadn’t met its mark and now Ben raced to the hospital, his gun still trained on her. It was as if Julia wasn’t a part of herself anymore. The events seemed separate from physical reality. If she allowed herself to sit in the passenger’s seat next to Ben...she would feel the awful spindles of shock firing through her body. If she were here—above it—she could think rationally just like when a code happened.
Except that her own life was on the line.
Ben screeched to a halt near the front of the hospital and slammed the car into park. The seat belt bit into Julia skin, her hands floating appendages as the car’s safety mechanism prevented her from crashing through the already injured windshield.
He exited the driver’s side and left the door open. Julia punched out of her seat belt, locked the passenger-side door and began to crawl over the seats to exit the driver’s side. Loud pops filled the air, echoed by screams of women and children. Glass hailed over Julia’s legs and she felt a hand clamp down on her calf. Flipping onto her back, she delivered a swift kick into Ben’s gut, which loosened his grip, and she continued to crawl backward out of the car. Quicker than she thought possible, he opened the passenger-side door and grabbed both her legs, yanking her out where she landed on her back on the black, oily pavement.
“Get up!”
Julia scrambled up and Ben advanced on her. She backed up into the car and he grabbed the front of her shirt, forcing her body against his and placing the gun to her temple.
“Ben, let her go!”
Eli’s voice. Ben twirled Julia and grabbed her around the chest, pinning her arms with his. He began to walk her to the hospital entrance.
Julia squinted her eyes against the sun. Where was Eli? That was when she saw several other officers dressed in navy blue dotted around the front of the campus. Somehow they had discovered Ben’s plot and had been there to preempt him.
Policemen beckoned patients and their families away from the hospital entrance. The screaming—why couldn’t it stop? It made it hard for Julia to keep a clear head. She felt the metal end of the gun warming from the heat in her skin. She had both hands clamped on Ben’s forearm to try and steady the sway of her body against his.
Ben raised the weapon and fired two shots into the air. Radios squawked in rapid succession and Julia’s heart anchored at the base of her throat, beating as quickly as Ben’s to her back.
“Back off!” Ben yelled, tugging her closer to the hospital entrance.
Eli revealed himself, and Julia focused her vision at his eyes and he engaged hers.
Would this be her last sight of him?
* * *
Eli held Julia’s gaze. Even though she had a gun held to her head, he didn’t see fear there. Just certainty. Determination.
He held two fingers up and pointed at his eyes.
Look here, Julia. Stay with me. I will get you through this in one piece.
To his relief, Julia appeared uninjured. It looked as though one of his bullets found its mark, as blood dotted Ben’s left suit sleeve, but it was apparently not enough to dissuade this man from his ultimate plan.
Once Julia’s eyes held his, he straightened his stance and leveled the weapon at Ben’s head. “Ben, please. I don’t want to shoot you. Just surrender yourself.”
Ben continued to pull Julia to the front entrance. Two uniformed officers held positions at either side of the door, their weapons trained on Ben, as well. They couldn’t shoot him in the back without fear of the bullet passing through to Julia.
Ben wasn’t going to win. They weren’t going to allow him to enter the hospital. The next goal was keeping Julia alive, but Eli knew some of the other officers—and even the command structure—were willing to injure Julia if it came down to preventing Ben from taking his weapon inside.
The sun beat down on the lawn, its glare bouncing off w
indshields. Sweat dripped into Eli’s eyes. His hands ached from holding his gun.
In Ben’s eyes he saw just as much determination as in Julia’s. Except Ben’s were filled with anger, hatred—matted pools of hopelessness that made any man an unpredictable weapon. Even without a gun.
How could Eli end this? Ben continued to take steps toward the hospital.
“Eli,” Julia called. “I’m sad you never picked me flowers.”
He wiped the sweat from his brow. A message for sure. He blinked rapidly to clear his vision.
“Shut up,” Ben said. “Don’t talk to him.”
Ben and Julia were at best twenty steps from the front entrance. Eli moved closer to Ben. Now Eli was shielded under the valet parking overhang, which made it easier for Eli to find his mark.
“You know what my favorites are?” Julia asked.
Ben continued to step back, closing the distance. Eli waved the officers off. He knew what she was going to do. She was waiting for him to be prepared.
Their signal. The precious secret between them from the day they were brought back together. Daisies. Red daisies. They might not be her favorite, but they were going to be today.
Eli advanced three steps, squared up again and aimed his weapon right at Ben’s head.
“Red daisies,” Eli said.
Julia dropped like a weight from Ben’s arms, and Eli fired his shot—finding his mark in the middle of Ben’s forehead.
Keeping his gun trained on Ben, he ran toward the two of them, kicking Ben’s weapon out of the way. Other officers converged on Eli’s position to check Ben and to determine whether or not he was still alive. It was clear to Eli that his partner wasn’t.
Eli kneeled down and gathered Julia in his arms, desperate to have her close to him. At this point, he didn’t care what others thought. He didn’t care if he was fired.
He was never letting her go again.
Eli pulled her up and walked her away from Ben’s bloody body to a small park nearby and positioned her under the shade of a large tree. She leaned against the trunk.
Fractured Memory Page 19